A Hellenic Fairy Tale
by DraconicalPriest
Summary: *On Hiatus 'till I regain interest in Inuyasha* Setting: Ancient Crete, AU. Inuyasha is descended from Poseidon's chariot Dog, and Lady Amata, the wife of Crete's King Shesshoumaru. Not far yet, but updates may eventually occur.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, I do not own the legend of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth, and I do not own Crete.  
  
AN: Okay, several notes here. This is a repost. It is revised, and is now being continued (I took some time off to graduate and get a job (). It is a (late) answer to Chris-san's challenge to write Inuyasha as the Minotaur (only he's half dog, instead of half bull). Now, I'm a twisted college grad who took far too much Greek for a good Biology major, so I'm going to go ahead and use some rather non- canon conventions. ^_^ First, in places I will be making use of Greek concepts and occasionally words, such as hubris and arête. I encourage you to look them up, but if you're lazy, ask me and I'll tell you to the best of my knowledge (which may be iffy). Second, during the narrative portions of the story, I will tend to write in a more Greek style, including beginning sentences with "and" or "yet" and going on and on and on and on and on for far too long before the period (which useful punctuation the Ancient Greeks did not use). Third, THIS IS AN AU FIC! The relationships will be changed, obviously the setting is changed, and please remember that the background culture is now Greek instead of Japanese! Nevertheless, I will be attempting to remain true to character (as I perceive it) while remaining somewhat true to the ancient Hellene's (Greek's) cultural norms.  
  
Mm, also.I am a native English speaker, and if I'm doing something incorrectly that bothers the heck out of you, feel free to informatively flame me and I'll try to fix it. Currently I do not have a beta reader, and anyone who would like to help me out with that would be very, very welcome.  
  
One more thing.this is my first fic and it will definitely be a long one, so not only do I feel justified in a long author's note, but I dearly hope you enjoy my fic and review!  
  
  
  
A Hellenic Fairy Tale: Prologue  
  
Long, long ago in the age of heroes there lived a ferocious beast on the island of Crete. It was created through the wrath of the great god Poseidon and the hubris of the Cretan king Sesshoumaru. For many years, the people of the island feared its violent powers and the king lived miserably under the curse of its existence. This beast was named Inuyasha, for it was half human and half dog, and had the power of the very gods running through its blood.  
  
*********  
  
The people of Crete have always worshipped Poseidon, with drowned sacrifices and libations made with humble mien. For their faithfulness, the omens were usually fair, and only truly stupid or cursed men were lost at sea. For hundreds of years it continued in this manner, until there arose a great king whose arête (excellence) in all skills of war and learning were so great that his subjects and advisors began to think of him as a rival for the gods.  
  
"Surely no human could be so talented and handsome," his subjects would say, "He must be a child of the gods or at least a favorite among them!" The king's advisor Jaken, a noisy and generally ignorant but amusing barbarian from the north, was especially loud in praising the king. He was always saying that Lord Sesshoumaru is so wise and so handsome!  
  
He even declared that Lord Sesshoumaru must be as handsome and wise as the god Poseidon himself. "For is not the sea ashamed of its mixed and various colors and requires the adornments of its white caps and flirty foam? Yet our lord is paler than the sea foam and his skin and hair are smoother than the calmest sea. His eyes are the burnished gold of sunken treasure, and his lips are a pink more delicate than coral. And within his perfect form, there lies a wisdom at odds with his age, such that he confounds even the wisest of philosophers in conversation!"  
  
Lord Sesshoumaru heard this praise constantly, and indeed he never met with anyone fairer than he, and the wisest men in the land were utterly boring to him and trivial in their concerns. And eventually his head was turned and he came to believe in the praises with which he was showered. He did not stop those unwise flatterers who poured libations in his honor, and he cut short the festivals of the gods in preference of the holidays of state, and he retained the choicest sacrifices from the god's feasts for his own use. His hubris grew swiftly, and his praises were trumpeted ever more loudly until they reached the ears of the gods upon the slopes of fair Olympus.  
  
On that sweet mountain, the gods and goddesses amuse themselves with wine and feasts and merrymaking. And there they did first hear the new rumors of a fantastically handsome and overly proud mortal king upon the Isle of Crete. They laughed amongst each other and joked that Poseidon was too busy with his nymphs in his soggy sea bottom palace to take notice of this usurper to his rights. The ocean god thus provided sport for the heavenly gossips for several years before he visited the court and first learned of the insult King Sesshoumaru offered.  
  
When he did discover the perfidy of his Cretan worshippers, the god was beyond furious. Behind his back, his most ardent of followers had found a new idol and were turning to a stinking, moronic, cur of a mortal! In his anger, he formed huge funnel-storms upon the seas and created storms that left the seas and skies black for days. Entire navies were wrecked and the bodies of sailors lay strewn for miles along the shores. Then he quieted, and began to plot . . .  
  
King Sesshoumaru had a wife who, though a beauty in mortal terms, was yet far less fair than he. Lady Amata possessed long black hyacinth hair, growing in tight ringlets down to her knees, and her eyes were an amazing amethyst hue. She was devout in her worship of Poseidon, but proud also of her husband. Although she and her lord had been married for five years, ever since she was fourteen, she had never yet borne him a child. However, the lord was fond of his lady and refused to put her aside for a fertile wife, for she amused him with her songs and witticisms.  
  
This was the weakness that Poseidon finally settled on for having his revenge against the arrogant Sesshoumaru. He planned to take the lady away or kill her, and his glee at the thought of his prize soon became known to the other gods. Now, the gods were concerned with Poseidon's obsession, for the last time Poseidon had taken revenge upon a mortal was that Odysseus man, and they all remembered what a nuisance that episode had turned out to be. So they conferred and decided to send one of their number to try to reason with him, and calm him down. The one chosen was Athena, for her cool- headed wisdom and her smooth tongue, and for the fact that she was not one of the gossips whose taunting had inflamed the unruly sea god.  
  
Athena mounted her windborne chariot drawn by sparrows, which she had made and then borrowed from her sister Aphrodite, and flew quickly to Poseidon's palace. When she came before him she brought her newest servant lad, to play upon the lyre and make a soothing noise for the tempestuous sea god.  
  
"O Poseidon, what cause do you have to be moaning and blustering so as you have been these past few months? Do not your nymphs still delight you? Are not your sacrifices satisfying?" She asked him, with an innocent air. "See what a gift I have brought for you, this talented lad to fill your rooms with music! You should always be happy and joyful, for you are powerful and envied by every man! Instead I find you down in the mouth over some little pampered king who has not even a flicker of your grace and power. Cheer up!"  
  
The sea god cast her a chilly look, and stated calmly, "I know why you are here, gray-eyed Athena. That king has slighted me and has taken sacrifices which are mine by right. His subjects have begun to worship him over me, and I will not stand for it."  
  
The divine maiden paused at this, for it was true that justice demanded retribution for the God. She pondered and finally replied, "As a patron of justice, I can understand your need for revenge. But what have you planned which has you so pleased with yourself?"  
  
The god gave a cold smile and replied, "I shall steal the upstart's wife away from him, for she is very fair and a devout worshipper of myself. He does not deserve to keep her, and her loss will cause him much pain."  
  
Now the goddess was exasperated, this was a plan that several male deities had hit upon in the past, and it always created a mess in the end. In fact . . . "Zeus has forbidden such actions, ever since that last time, O Earth- shaker, surely you can give this mortal another chance to remember his place, before you destroy him. Please let us think on another way to test him, and discover for sure whether or not he really deserves such punishment."  
  
Poseidon grumbled unhappily, but he flushed too, since he also remembered the troubles he'd gotten into last time. "I will send him a sacrifice which is fit only for a god. If he keeps it instead, and sacrifices it for himself at one of his state festivals, then I will punish him in truth. I will send one of the magical white dogs which draw my chariot along the ocean waves and watch to see what he does."  
  
With this Athena had to be satisfied, and she withdrew reluctantly . . .  
  
  
  
AN: Ok, I know that Poseidon's chariot is actually drawn by horses, and that in fact he is a patron god of horses, but for rather obvious reasons I'm going to be changing that to dogs. Also, Athena usually drives a pretty regular war chariot, drawn by horses. However, since she was the inventor of the chariot, and with Hephaestus designed and built the chariots for the gods, I figured she could borrow her sister's car for her little jaunt over to Poseidon's house. ^_^  
  
"Immortal Aphrodite of the elaborate throne, wile-weaving daughter of Zeus; I beseech thee! Do not with pangs and torments crush down my soul! But if ever before you have heard my pleadings then return, as once before when you left your father's golden house; you yoked to your gleaming chariot your wing-whirring sparrows; swirling down through the sky's bright ether. On they brought you over the earth's black bosom, swiftly--then you stood with a sudden brilliance, Goddess, before me . . . ."  
  
Ah, you've gotta love Sappho. This is partly my own translation, partly not, since I'm just not that facile with translations. 


	2. Chapter I A destined meeting

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. I am not a historian. I am not a Greek god. (  
  
A Hellenic Fairy Tale: Chapter I  
  
On a fine spring morning, Lady Amata decided to go out with her handmaidens and collect seashells from the shore. She brought along several servants with baskets of food and a young piper to make music for the girls as they played. The handsome maidens gamboled and played games by the surf for most of the morning and had just sat down to partake of the meal they had brought, when a strange phenomenon occurred.  
  
At first it seemed like a second daybreak. There was a beautiful golden light along the horizon, but instead of rising from the water, it stayed on the water and started to come toward them. The shimmering light came nearer and nearer, until the handmaidens knelt down and cowered in their skirts, hiding their faces from the approaching glory. The servant lads ran away, back to the castle to summon the lord, and the piper threw his pipe down and ran toward the town screaming of glowing devils and too much wine. However, Lady Amata stood calmly on the beach and watched as the light came closer to her. She peered at the shape in awe and saw that it was a great white dog walking toward her, surrounded by a golden nimbus.  
  
The dog stood at least twice her height and had long curly white hair, like the foam curling on the waves under its feet. Its eyes were a handsome gold and they seemed to grow brighter as it approached the waiting woman. When the dog set foot on the shore, the golden light suddenly flared - so brightly that even Lady Amata had to look away - and then the light vanished, revealing a handsome youth dressed in white linen. His sandals and the hem of his peplos (robe) were both the blue of the sea, his hair was long and white, and his eyes were the eyes of the white dog that had just disappeared.  
  
He stood quietly, with a calm, sad expression on his noble face, as Lady Amata stared at him in awe. As a devout follower of Poseidon, she had instantly recognized him as one of the great White Sea Dogs which drew the ocean god's chariot over the waves. She gathered herself together and knelt before him, welcoming him as the godly being he so obviously was.  
  
"Welcome to our land of Crete, O White Sea Dog. I am Lady Amata, wife of this land's lord, what may I do to aid you? Will you rest and take refreshments at our palace?"  
  
The handsome man looked down at her prettily bowed head and said quietly, "I am indeed one of our lord Poseidon's chariot bearers. My name is Rhei. I must refuse your proper offers of hospitality, for I cannot be your guest. I am instead sent to die at your husband's hand, as a sacrifice, and before the end of this month."  
  
In shock, Lady Amata gasped and stood up quickly. An unthinking protest was torn from her lips, "No!" She hesitated, upset but unwilling to offend the Dog. "Sir.surely that isn't right.I.I can't imagine that the Thunderer would send his own dog to be sacrificed.what do you mean?"  
  
This man is perfect, she thought, but surely he can't be meant for a sacrifice...Poseidon does not ask for human sacrifices. He only takes those humans who have somehow badly offended him, surely he wouldn't wish to have one of his own Dogs sacrificed to him, if he is so forgiving even to humans! While these thoughts whirled wildly through her head, the Dog Rhei hastened to answer her.  
  
"Don't fear, lady. My lord will not let me die, unless I offend him sorely while I am here. Poseidon requires that your lord declare a ten day feast and festival in his honor. On the last day of the festival, I am to be returned to the water. I will remain as Lord Poseidon's lead Dog, but I will lose this human form forever after as my sacrifice."  
  
"Oh," Amata weakly replied. Why am I so relieved he won't die? He's so handsome. "If that is the Thunderer's wish, then none of us may complain. However, you must stay somewhere until, well, until then please stay with us, and we will make sure that you've enjoyed all the pleasures of being human before you return to your other form." She blushed prettily at her unintended innuendo, then gestured for Rhei to come forward with her, and turned back to the walk to the palace."  
  
When she turned, she noticed that all of her handmaidens had disappeared, leaving shells and trays of food strewn across the beach. She noticed that it was now exactly noon, and that the sun overhead shimmered on the armor and swords of the palace guards who were running toward them. 


End file.
